


Just 5%

by Silvanuyx



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-10
Updated: 2013-12-10
Packaged: 2018-01-04 05:29:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1077081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silvanuyx/pseuds/Silvanuyx
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alternate (angstier) ending for The Device Has Been Modified by Lindzzz. Whoops.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just 5%

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Device Has Been Modified](https://archiveofourown.org/works/945104) by [Lindzzz](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lindzzz/pseuds/Lindzzz). 



> This has already been posted on Tumblr, but I figured I should add it here, since I'm actually starting to post stuff here. If you haven't read Device, this will make NO SENSE. Since it literally picks up with a line from near the end of it.
> 
> This was written for a friend of mine for some challenge she gave me to make her cry. If I recall, it worked.

_What is 5%? It one out of twenty, but what does that mean? 5% of one hundred is five, and 5% of ten is one half. 5% of one hundred apples is five apples._

_But what is 5% of a summer afternoon? Or a winter vacation?_

_What is 5% of a person?_

“Please wait.” Jack says. “System rebooting. Assessing damaged files. Scanning.”

Koz waited, his hands trembling where they rested on Jack’s smooth skin, waiting, hoping. It was 5%. Just 5%. Jack probably had enough fonts saved to fill up 5% of his file. That horrendous blue sparkly font he loved probably took up a full percent on it’s own.

“Error. Damaged file is non-recoverable. Would you like to perform diagnostics?”

That flat voice, those dead eyes, and Koz just stared. He must have said yes, because the flat AI voice just said “Performing diagnostics” before falling quiet again.

Jack might be gone. He had no idea how he could fix any of this. Jack was huge and complex, lines of code intertwining as delicately as neurons in a brain, and anything Koz did could break him even more. Stars, even the best AI programmer would have issues with Jack. Jack had written himself for the most part. Koz had laid the framework, but Jack had rewritten nearly everything.

“Diagnostics complete. Critical subroutines are missing. Please insert drive with critical subroutines.”

Koz let his hands fall into his lap.

Jack was gone.

Maybe not completely gone, but gone enough that he wasn’t sure anyone would put forth the effort to bring him back.

He squeezed his eyes shut, and felt tears drop on to his limp hands.

“Please insert drive with critical subroutines.”

Jack’s final act was to make sure he would survive. He wasn’t sure Jack even knew he had set up the transfer. Jack didn’t know if he would make it.

“Please insert drive with critical subroutines.”

“Power down,” he whispered, hearing the sound of the biomechanical body slumping over as it obeyed him.

He opened his eyes with a shuddering sigh and looked at Jack’s body. The body that Jack had designed so meticulously, that Koz had gone through so much trouble to get, and Jack would never know it.

He reached for the back of Jack’s neck, pulling out the drive numbly. Jack still smelled faintly of the lab.

Koz couldn’t help it, he pulled the limp body close, wishing that Jack was there to share in the feeling. “Jack, I love you,” he whispered in to a deaf ear, then pulled back to gently press his lips to Jack’s.

“Please come back.”


End file.
